The Law Office of Dario Diaz has sent it’s most recent newsletter. The newsletter covers PIP coverage in Florida and how to stay safe during the holidays. You can look at the newsletter in your browser here.
As a Personal Injury Attorney I get asked many questions about insurance coverage. Many times the questions come after an accident when the client is surprised that their insurance does not pay what they thought. Florida insurance law is complex and many people don’t really understand what portion of the policy pays for losses. I have put together some videos to help explain the different types of auto insurance coverages available in Florida. This video deals with PIP coverage. It is a brief introduction to Personal Injury Protection (PIP) (also called No-Fault Insurance) coverage.
The City of Tampa has installed and will begin enforcing traffic infractions with red light cameras. Through November 1, 2011 the infraction will be a warning only. Starting November 1, 2011 running a red light will result in a traffic fine of $158.00. Here is a list of the intersections with red light cameras in Tampa.
Here is a map I assembled showing the intersections:
View Tampa Red Light Camera in a larger map
Westbound E Busch Boulevard @ N Nebraska Avenue
Eastbound E Fowler Avenue @ N Nebraska Avenue
Westbound E Hillsborough Avenue @ N Nebraska Avenue
Northbound N Armenia Avenue @ W Hillsborough Avenue
Northbound N Lois Avenue @ W Hillsborough Avenue
Northbound N Nebraska Avenue @ E Hillsborough Avenue
Northbound N Nebraska Avenue @ E Fowler Avenue
Eastbound W Gandy Boulevard @ S Westshore Boulevard
Eastbound Adamo Drive @ S 50th Street / S Tamiami Trail
Eastbound E Hillsborough Avenue @ N 22nd Street
Westbound E Hillsborough Avenue @ N 22nd Street
Eastbound E Waters Avenue / CR 584 @ US 41 / N Florida Avenue
Southbound N Himes Avenue @ W Hillsborough Avenue
Southbound S 50th Street / S Tamiami Trail @ Adamo Drive
Southbound S Dale Mabry Highway @ W Gandy Boulevard
Southbound S Manhattan Avenue @ W Gandy Boulevard
Northbound S Westshore Boulevard @ W Gandy Boulevard
Southbound US 41 / N Florida Avenue @ E Waters Avenue / CR 584
Eastbound W Gandy Boulevard @ S Dale Mabry Highway
Westbound W Gandy Boulevard @ S Westshore Boulevard
Westbound W Waters Avenue / CR 584 @ N Armenia Avenue
Eastbound W Waters Avenue / CR 584 @ N Armenia Avenue
Eastbound W Kennedy Boulevard @ N Ashley Drive
Sep 292011
The few hours immediately after a auto accident can be critical to documenting your property damage, your medical condition, and our ability to be compensated for your losses. The insurance companies know that getting information immediately is essential to establishing their basis to reduce your claim. A little preparation on your part can go a long way to making sure you are fairly compensated for your loss, your personal injuries. Continue reading »
What is an Independent Medical Examination (“IME”)?
Your auto insurance policy has a provision which allows the insurance company to have a physician perform a medical examination to determine if any further treatment is necessary. A more accurate name would be, “Insurance Medical Examination” since the insurance company pays the doctor/chiropractor. The IME physician is “working” for the insurance company and therefore no doctor/patient confidentiality exists. You are required to attend an IME based on the contractual obligations of your insurance policy.
The insurance company almost always unilaterally schedules these examinations before your treating physician has completed your course of treatment. In the vast majority of cases your benefits will be suspended after you attend this examination as the IME physician will determine that further medical treatment is not warranted. Remember, the IME physician is paid by the insurance company. Once the IME physician determines (after a single visit) that you don’t need any further treatment, the insurance company will no longer pay benefits to your treating physician.
It is, however, extremely important that you do not miss the appointment otherwise the insurance company will automatically suspend and/or deny your benefits for lack of cooperation. Our firm, in almost every case, requires the insurance company to schedule the IME at a time convenient to our clients with plenty of notice and coordination of the date and time. We also require the insurance company to provide transportation when necessary.
Once you are at the doctor’s office they will ask you to fill out a form stating your injuries, course of treatment, medications, etc. Try to be as accurate as you possibly can. Do not discuss how the accident happened, how much property damage occurred, or who was at fault with the IME doctor. The IME doctor is not your friend. He/she will report everything you tell them to the insurance company and even innocent conversation will be taken out of context and embellished by the IME physician.
When the IME doctor authors a report stating that your treatment is no longer necessary, your PIP benefits will be suspended effective immediately. However your treating physician can challenge the IME doctor’s opinion in an effort to reestablish your benefits.
We often are involved in situations where the treating doctor believes further treatment is warranted after the IME physician determines it is not. Just because the insurance company says you don’t need medical care does not make it true.
Florida insurance law is…confusing. Automobile insurance is the most common type of insurance most of us will deal with at one time or another. Many, many times the insured person does not find out what coverage he or she has until after a crash occurs. Only then does the person find out if they have insurance coverage for the damage or loss. I hear clients state, often, “I have full coverage.” “Full coverage” means absolutely NOTHING. There is no provision, anywhere, for a “full coverage” policy. Florida is a sort of a la carte state for insurance coverage. That means that you can pick what coverages you want and how much coverage you want. The only real mandatory coverage is Personal Injury Protection (PIP) also knows as No-Fault coverage. PIP is what I will cover, somewhat briefly, in this post.
PIP is a type of insurance that pays for your medical bills and lost wages in the event of injury in an accident. It makes no difference who is to blame or who is at fault; if you are injured in a car crash your PIP insurance pays for your medical bills. So, if you are a passenger in a friends car and are involved in a car crash, your PIP coverage will pay for your hospital and doctor bills. Many people do not understand this and tell me, “Why should my insurance pay when I wasn’t at fault?” That’s Florida law. PIP is, “PERSONAL” Injury Protection which means that you carry it on your PERSON without regard for who was driving, which car you are in, or who is at fault. Of course, different situations may arise (i.e. an injured person does not own a car or have any PIP insurance) which have different coverage issues.
A common PIP policy will generally cover up to $10,000.00 of medical bills and lost wages and may have a deductible. PIP pays 80% of your medical bills and will also pay 60% any lost wages you might have during your disability. If you are unable to work, it is essential that you get a disability certificate from your medical provider and then submit support for your lost wages (generally a few weeks/months of past pay stubs). Your PIP insurance company will then pay 60% of your lost wages up to a maximum of $10,000.00. Remember, that the $10,000.00 is the TOTAL available for your medical bills AND lost wages. So if your medical bills are $8,000.00 that will only leave $2,000.00 for lost wages.
This is a very, VERY brief introduction to a single type of insurance coverage available. When you consider the different types of auto insurance coverages: PIP, Comprehensive, Collision, Bodily Injury, Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist, MedPay, rental, roadside assistance, Gap insurance; you begin to get an idea of how complicated coverage might be, and how much may not be covered when you think it is.
It’s important to know your coverages and rights. The worst time to find out what is covered is after a car crash. Unfortunately, most people find out what is NOT covered and are then responsible for the loss on their own. I recommend speaking with your agent and getting an exact picture of your coverage. My office would be glad to assist you with any issues you might have or any questions regarding coverage on your current policy.
May 222011
My father, Ignacio Diaz-Rebozo died on May 20, 2011 at the age of 93. There is a saying that a self made man is like a self laid egg; it’s absolutely true. What we are in the present is compromised of those things we carry with us both genetically and from the lessons and experiences we have during our lives. I had a great opportunity to learn so much from my father and his vast education in what he called, “La Universidad de la Vida” – the University of Life.
Born in 1917 in Havana, Cuba, his father, a Spanish sailor, returned to Spain when my father was very young leaving my father and his mother alone in Cuba. The stories of my father’s poverty and struggles as a youth set the foundation for what he knew he wanted to be and what he had to do to get there. He would tell stories of his mother crying because the didn’t have money for rice (which at the time was, “dos centavos” literally $0.02.) When he saw his mother crying he told her not to worry that he would make enough to take care of them. Of course, he was only 6 or 7 but he did start to take on tasks and jobs to help with money and had to leave school very early.
As a result of his situation, my father was relatively uneducated. He had some minimal formal education but basically taught himself to read and write. He knew that education was critical to leaving the poverty and tears his mother cried because of that poverty. Although not attending school, he would read anything he could: newspapers, books, magazines, whatever he could get his hands on.
He fled Cuba when Castro took power. He left with nothing except the clothes he had with him leaving everything he knew behind. But he brought with him a lifetime of experiences and was already well into his studies in, “La Universidad de la Vida.” By the time I was born, he was 51 years old and had an advanced graduate degree from that same university that has no campus, no paper degree, and only the world as your professor. I cannot overstate the benefit it has been for me to have a Master tutor and mentor so thoroughly educated in that university. It is something that no Ivy League, Rhodes scholarship, or paper degree can ever provide. But I had the benefit of it.
He knew the secret for me was to get as much education as possible. He constantly pushed me to get an education. He didn’t care what I studied, just to keep going to school. His view for my success, and by proxy his success, was that I would never have to punch a time clock. That is the way, simple as it may sound, my father gauged success, to not punch a time card.
I will miss my father and his sage advice. I will miss his sharp wit, biting sarcasm, and his stories. I have lost my greatest critic…and my greatest advocate. I know well that I am not a self made man and that I owe great debts to those who played a role in shaping my life. I know that an enormous part of me was forged from the foundry of Ignacio Diaz-Rebozo steel.
Papi, te quiero, descanse en paz.
All cases boil down to one thing, the ability to prove negligence on the at fault party. I can tell you from experience that many times a client will tell me that the other person admitted fault at the scene, was ticketed, or was obviously at fault only to have an insurance company later tell my client that they bore some responsibility for the accident.
In this time of technological availability, we all have products available to us that can assist if the facts are later disputed or the other party is untruthful. One of these products is the cell phone camera. The vast majority of cell phones now have such cameras available. Wouldn’t a picture of the accident scene or damages benefit your case later?
In an Automobile crash case, take pictures of the vehicles involved and the damage. Did the air bags deploy? Did you suffer bruising from the seatbelt or other body impact? Skid Marks or debris in the road? Are there beer cans in the other car? Did the bushes or landscaping at the intersection block the view of either driver? In every single instance you can use your cell phone to take a picture. Don’t worry about how you can take the pictures off the phone, or how long the pictures will be saved. Just remember to document everything at the scene. Remember, take a picture!
In the premises liability case, it is crucial to prove the negligence clearly. Did you slip and fall due to a spill or substance on the floor? Take a picture! Was the sidewalk in poor repair or uneven causing you to fall? Take a picture! Were the steps full of debris or broken? Take a picture! These pictures will be absolutely beneficial to your case and proving negligence.
All this will document evidence of the negligence and damages. However, be sure that all photos are taken with safety considerations and that the photos accurately depict the scene.
When you are involved in an accident in which you are not at fault, the other party is responsible for the damages to your vehicle. It is important that a claim is made quickly so that the insurance company can take care of your vehicle in a timely fashion. Many insurance companies will try to stall paying your property damage by claiming that they are, “investigating” the accident. This often results in a delay in getting your car fixed. More often then not, it’s a delay tactic used by the insurance company to try and force a lower settlement offer.
Once the insurance company accepts liability they will send an adjuster to evaluate your damages, write an estimate and issue a check for the damages. You can determinie where you want your vehicle to be repaired, you DO NOT have to use the repair shop recommended by the insurance company. However, many insurance companies have preferred shops which often have the insurance company’s interest and not yours. Also, if your vehicle is still under warranty or if it’s a leased vehicle you might have to take it to the dealership to be repaired otherwise your warranty might be voided.
For more information about property damage and getting your car fixed after an accident, contact my office. While many attorney’s charge for property damage work, my office does not.
One of the most common things we see in foreclosure actions is our client’s failure to respond to the foreclosure lawsuit in a timely manner. The failure to respond to a lawsuit can create serious problems in defending a foreclosure case.
If you do not respond to a complaint filed against you within twenty (20) days of being served, a default may be entered against you. A default basically means you admit the truth of the allegations in the complaint, and the Plaintiff has a clear road ahead to get a final judgment against you. If defaulted, you are on the sidelines of the lawsuit, and not permitted to defend anything stated in the lawsuit.
If you have not filed a formal answer in time and have been defaulted, there is a procedure for relief. It requires additional work and should be avoided if at all possible. If there is a default against you for failing to file a formal answer you must satisfy a three (3) step test for the Court to determine whether to set aside a default:
(1) Whether you demonstrated excusable neglect in failing to respond;
(2) Whether you have a meritorious defenses; and
(3) Whether you, after learning of the default, acted quickly (demonstrated due diligence) in seeking relief.
If you are unsure about the status of a legal case filed against you, or if you have been defaulted, it still may be possible to do something in response, depending on the facts of your case. While it is usually best to deal with legal papers filed against you right away, if you have been defaulted, it may be possible to deal with the lawsuit and work toward a resolution if the above three-part test is met.
